Record companies new efforts yield old results

By Kevin Cape
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer

Despite recent efforts by the recording industry to boost the appeal and use of authorized, paid download services, most students are staying "economical."

The most recent attempt by the recording industry came last week when Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-based Wurld Media announced that three of the four major recording companies — SONY BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group — have licensed their entire catalogues to Peer Impact, Wurld Media's new peer-to-peer file sharing software that is in the final stages of beta testing.

The company has yet to release prices or payment methods, but songs will not be purchased on an individual track basis. The software will allow paying member users to trade music in a closed network.

But most students still feel better about trading for free on an open network.

"Who cares if [the software] has new features," said junior creative writing major Robert Uchida. "Students would still rather get their music for free."

Uchida, along with a majority of students surveyed, does not believe any of the efforts to sway downloaders to the legal methods of file-swapping will have any significant effect.

"I don't think students are willing to pay [for online music] when they can get it for free," said Jessica Rinehart, a junior art and marketing double major. "I've never paid [for a download]."

When asked what effect Pepsi's free-download promotion had on senior communications student Matt Rapping switching to paid downloads he said, "None whatsoever. The free download software is just too sloppy. And it left my computer too susceptible to viruses."

But unfortunately for the music industry's big business, sloppy is just fine for most of the student population.

"Maybe the older generations that have careers and can afford to buy music will do it," said Jacob Hastert, a junior criminal justice major. "But the rest of us poor college students are screwed."

Recent efforts have also been made by the music industry to sway downloaders with pleas for the wellbeing of the artists. A number of Internet sites have been created to back the plea.

According to musicunited.org, there are four main reasons not to download music illegally from the Web, one of which is that it "betrays the songwriters and recording artists who create it."

But the list does not include the fact that it seriously hurts the recording companies' revenue from album sales, a phantom fifth point that students aren't missing.

"After all the fees they have to pay, the artists don't even make any money off of their CDs," Rinehart said. "It's the record execs that make all the money."

Hastert said, "It's [record companies] just trying to make more money, it's them trying to be the good guys [when they're not]."

So how does Rinehart feel about the executives making an emotional plea for the "betrayal" of the artists? "I think it's bulls—t."

Hastert said including the fifth point would not quite have the same effect as a plea for artists. "I am not for stealing from the individual. But I am for stealing from major corporations."